On the eve of Excel’s 40th anniversary, Microsoft introduced Agent Mode for Excel. Although I am a 40-year spreadsheet veteran, I am finding that Agent Mode can build better spreadsheets than I can.
Agent Mode runs in a task pane to the right of the Excel grid. Type a prompt. Agent Mode reasons for up to 30 minutes. It builds a strategy and explains the strategy in the task pane. Over the next several minutes, Agent Mode keeps you apprised as it implements the strategy. It can add worksheets, tables, formulas, charts, and pivot tables.
After the strategy is complete, it looks for errors and checks that the results are as expected. When they aren’t, it explains why something failed and writes a new strategy. It implements that strategy and verifies that it is working.
When Agent Mode finishes your request, it explains all formulas. It then suggests three or four next steps that would make your request better. You can choose one of those or write your own. You can ask for enhancements or fixes.
All of this happens inside Excel, where you can watch the progress.
After Agent Mode finishes, I make a copy of the task pane discussion and paste it into Word. Typically, this documentation stretches to 10-15 pages documenting the workbook. It literally is like bringing on a brilliant intern and unleashing them on your spreadsheet problems.
Frontier program: Try what’s next in AI
Agent Mode is the first Excel feature introduced under Microsoft’s new Frontier program. This program gets you hands-on with breakthrough features and shares your insights with product teams. “With Frontier, you’re not just adopting new technology, you’re co-creating what comes next”, according to Microsoft,
To try Agent Mode, you need to use Excel Online and enable the Excel Labs tools in Excel Online.
- Open Excel on your computer. Go to File, then Account. Note the username that you use in Excel.
- Open a browser such as Edge, Chrome, or Safari. In the address bar, type excel.new and press Enter to launch Excel Online. If you’ve never used Excel Online before, you will need to sign in. Use the same user ID that you found in Step 1.
- Click the Add-ins icon on the Home ribbon. In the Search field, enter Excel Labs. Select the icon in the search results and choose to enable it for Excel Online. The Excel Labs icon is then added to the Home ribbon.
Figure 1: Add-ins icon.
- Click Excel Labs to open a task pane.
- Click on Agent Mode. One of two things will happen: If you have the proper Copilot license, Agent Mode will open, or a message will appear stating that you need a certain license to use Agent Mode and provide a link. If this happens, ask your IT department for Copilot access.
Figure 2: Excel Labs pane.
Opening your data in Excel online
Open a workbook in your desktop Excel. Save that workbook to your OneDrive account. Almost immediately, the workbook will be available in Excel Online. Go to File, Open, and look in the Recently Opened list to open your workbook in Excel Online. (Figure 3).
Figure 3: File menu to open your workbook.
Prompt engineering: Explain the task like you are talking to an intern
Your prompt in Agent Mode should describe the entire task. Pretend like you are talking to a very attentive intern: call out any caveats and provide tips that might help with the task.
Initially, the task pane starts out narrow. I’ve been dragging the left margin of the pane to make the task pane take up 40% of my screen.